Saturday, September 17, 2005

Here's how it works: A film's year is simply the year IMDB says it is. Not because IMDB is especially accurate, but just because it happens to be the easiest and most comprehensive resource there is for tracking film dates throughout the world and over the whole history of cinema. Occasionally IMDB will change a year as new information comes to light, when I notice such changes, I'll change the list here accordingly.

The order isn't definitive: ranking works of art is not meant to be a hierarchical activity, but rather an organizational one. It's interesting trivially and comparatively to see what movies came out at the same time, to see the progression of film history. And lists are just plain fun to argue over. They are meant to be conversation starters, not finishers. I don't have any particular criteria for what ranks above what, it's just my own subjective opinion, informed by a reasonable knowledge of film and film history, one that is expanding and deepening all the time.

The rankings change over time: when I see a new movie, I add it to the list here. Sometimes I'll see a movie again and my opinion of it will change, or my feelings about a film will evolve and so I'll move it up or down the list. These changes are noted as they occur in "This Week in Rankings" posts, though often a single change to a year will lead to a larger shuffling. These lists are, and always will be, a work in progress.

1. Ran
2. The Time to Live, The Time to Die
3. The Purple Rose of Cairo
4. Police Story
5. To Live and Die in LA
6. Back to the Future
7. Taipei Story
8. After Hours
9. Yes, Madam
10. Trouble in Mind
11. Silverado
12. Out of Africa
13. Ladyhawke
14. Brazil
15. Come and See
16. Clue
17. Working Class

1. Days of Being Wild
2. Miller's Crossing
3. Metropolitan
4. Bullet in the Head
5. Goodfellas
6. Archangel
7. Close-Up
8. An Angel at My Table
9. The Civil War
10. Joe Versus the Volcano
11. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
12. White Hunter Black Heart
13. The Hunt for Red October
14. Trust
15. Song of the Exile
16. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
17. Full Moon in New York
18. Total Recall
19. Dreams
20. Dick Tracy

7. Once Upon a Time in China
8. Barton Fink
9. LA Story
10. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
11. Raise the Red Lantern
12. Night on Earth
13. JFK
14. My Own Private Idaho
15. Silence of the Lambs
16. A Brief History of Time

21. The Nightmare Before Christmas
22. Boys Are Easy
23. Shadowlands
24. A Perfect World
25. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father
26. Red Rock West
27. The Wedding Banquet
28. The War Room
29. The Remains of the Day
30. Executioners
31. The Fugitive
32. So, I Married an Axe Murderer
33. Kung Fu Cult Master

42. LA Confidential
43. Good Will Hunting
44. The Boxer
45. Donnie Brasco
46. The Game
47. The Devil's Advocate
48. End of Evangelion
49. Nowhere

50. Chasing Amy

51. Wag the Dog

52. Alien: Resurrection
53. Private Parts
54. U-Turn
55. Once Upon a Time in China and America
56. Wings of the Dove
57. Smilla's Sense of Snow
58. House of Yes
59. Volcano
60. Marius and Jeanette
61. Event Horizon
62. I Know What You Did Last Summer
63. In the Company of Men
64. Life is Beautiful
65. As Good as It Gets
66. Men in Black
67. Contact
68. Mimic
69. Clockwatchers
70. Scream 2
71. GI Jane
72. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
73. Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
74. Liar Liar
75. The Myth of Fingerprints
76. Inventing the Abbotts
77. Tomorrow Never Dies
78. Trojan War
79. The Relic
80. The Full Monty
81. Telling Lies in America
82. Cop Land
83. Lolita
84. Spice World
85. Absolute Power
86. Two Girls and a Guy

5. Eyes Wide Shut
6. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
7. Running Out of Time
8. The Wind Will Carry Us
9. King of Comedy
10. Fight Club
11. South Park
12. Existenz
13. Toy Story 2
14. Office Space
15. Time Regained
16. The Road Home
17. Topsy-Turvy

18. The Iron Giant

19. Magnolia
20. The Blair Witch Project
21. Galaxy Quest

22. Where a Good Man Goes
23. HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-hsien
24. Ride with the Devil

1. La última película
2. The Missing Picture
3. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
4. Blind Detective
5. Only Lovers Left Alive
6. A Touch of Sin
7. The Immigrant
8. Computer Chess
9. Our Sunhi
10. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
11. Stray Dogs
12. The Wind Rises
13. The Wolf of Wall Street
14. The World's End
15. Nobody's Daughter Haewon
16. The Grandmaster
17. At Berkeley
18. Ip Man: The Final Fight
19. A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
20. Hard to Say
21. Inside Llewyn Davis
22. Yumen
23. Young Detective Dee and the Rise of the Sea Dragon
24. Just in Time
25. Before Midnight
26. The Great Passage
27. Under the Skin
28. A Fuller Life
29. 12 Years a Slave
30. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
31. The Three Disasters
32. All is Lost
33. Her
34. Trap Street
35. Miss and the Doctors
36. Blue is the Warmest Color
37. Snowpiercer
38. Unbeatable
39. So Young
40. Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
41. Mahjong
42. Six by Sondheim
43. Blue Jasmine
44. New World
45. Distant